Which ME had the toughest combat?

This could possibly be me just not enjoying the game, but for me, it is easily ME1. ME2, ME3, and Andromeda were all pretty damned easy (ME2 Insanity probably the toughest of these, but even that wasn't that bad after the first shock of realizing that you weren't immortal anymore).

i only really struggled once, and had to ressort to heavy wepaons cheating.
-On NG+ while having to block the hangar below archangel. man those vorchas were already playing against a fully build shep team while i had no bonus yet or smtg like that ? I dont remember the specific, but i think i failed countless tries on the same 20 m to close that door before trivilizing it with the arc gun
- i now remember i couldnt handle the krogan on ME1 while going to find that stupid liara on my last redo. No idea what happened... I used to be a scrub and had no real problem there, but that time i needed help !

ME2

Best and most difficult. While not as fluid as ME3, it had a certain visceral feeling to it, that was lost in 3. Evolving the same class among different line of specializations and weapon choices was also more impactful in terms of varied play style (e.g. Agent Infi with long Tac Cloak vs Assassin Infi with damage Tac Cloak). The DLCs brought combat to epic levels.

ME1

I'm in the minority of people who liked ME1 combat system a lot. It was certainly different and brought a unique hard sci-fi flair to it - the removable helmets (wish they'd played around more with that) , the overheating system, etc. It would have been right there with ME2 in terms of enjoyability and difficulty were it not for the lack of balancing that broke some powers - biotics and Immunity being the most grievous offenders.

ME3 SP

What's that? I played SP only once and ... . It's like the alpha version of Disney Wars. It's too tainted for me to evaluate the combat on a stand alone basis.


ME3 MP
(Platinum) Team games are easier than ME 2, soloing is harder.

Geth on open maps might be technically the most difficult of all ME but I take away several points for the sheer frustration of it, so the desklamps can go *** themselves . And while Collies/Plat might be the second most difficult, they are also probably the most enjoyable for me.

This is the closest to my own opinion . Also I did not find ANY of the SP experiences exceedingly difficult and that's because the fun factor always exceeded the difficulty.

Speaking from my own experience playing all the ME games as a whole.

ME1

Lift city lmao. And damn pistols were strong in that game.

ME2

This was what I started out with as my introduction to the ME series and the toughest one for me in terms of combat. And I honestly have too many memories starting out, since I died a ton in this game. Even more so when I attempted to tackle hardcore and Insanity and I pretty much gave up at that point. And I would say I got much better at ME2 because of all the hours combined from ME3 SP and the MP together. And having a better understanding of how mine and my teammates powers work and how to utilise them more effectively.

I can complete insanity for ME2 without as much trouble. Still occasionally die from time to time but at least not as much now. That's what I liked about ME2, is that there is a decent possibility of dying in that game, forcing me to use actual brain power unlike the other ME games I can like half turn off my brain and not worry as much.

ME3.

I will say here there might be some stuff I'll say that people may agree or disagree. But for me the combat (For the SP) is not too tough, there's some hard parts here and there in the game, the basic enemies in this game like the marauders and assault troopers off the top of my head that feel the closest to what the basic enemies were like in ME2, aren't as oppressive where you're forced to at least in most cases to stay in cover. And in ME3 you have more leeway and they're not too threatening .


MEA

I love making front of this game and meme-ing about it. Combat wise as a whole it was okay-ish, not my favourite would rather retreat back to ME3 lol.

On a side note back in the vanilla version of MEA, it had some ridiculous level scaling, so ridiculous that at max scaling enemies were literally big HP sponges. I didn't have a problem with it because it did force me to play smarter than what it is now. Since bioware pretty much decimated the level scaling, with any actual good build that was turbocharge centric or anything as crazy as those kinds of build.

Pretty much trivialised insanity it's lower than bronze or of any kind of mineral you'd name it lower than bronze. Since enemies can die so fast anyways, that you'd honestly have to go out of your way to die or do self imposed challenges where you nerf yourself to make insanity feel like "Insanity"

Not sure how I'd rank them exactly tbh but generally for the most part I'd say ME2 and MEA are for me I'd asy the hardest as I do sometimes struggle to complete some missions wihtout dying such as Garrus's recruitment mission and quite often on MEA I tend to at least die once or twice when fighting the architects. Iewould say I find ME1 the easiest with 3 in the middle somewher as ME1 is the onl yME game I've managed to complete without dying at all though in th case of ME1 I've only managed it a couple of times. I thin kfor me though it's moer I thimnk the fac tthat MEA i sa moer action focus rather than a tactical one that kind of makes it a littl eharder foer mre in tha tso,metimes I don'r tpress the required button quick enough due to my reactions being slower due t omy disability I still enjoy it though.

The first time I played Insanity on ME2 (as a Sentinel, of course), I got stuck at that fight so bad. Had to turn the game off and walk away, came back at it a few days later and got through (but not without dying 2 or 3 times before I figured it out). That's something I liked about ME2's Insanity, first time around, it was pretty tricky, but once you figured it out, it wasn't insanely difficult (I'm not the best gamer, I like to be able to finish stuff, even if I like there to be challenge along the way). There were also very few tedious fights, since ME2 went more for crowd control and massed enemy forces than bullet spongers.

ME1, because I never really cheated with a SR and heavy barrel mods.

MEA because they turned the bullet sponge to unfun. Also jet packs are silly idea when cover is the better option.

And lastly ME2 because the weapons were peashooters.

ME3 because it was hard if you didn't know how it worked. Full Auto Avenger my rear.

Bloody Shuriken wasn't. I always ran out of ammo.